Getting started with Python

I had Python 2.4.3 on my Red Hat 4.1.2-54 box, but decided to install Python 3.2 as some of the newer scripts were breaking.

Here is what I did to install Pyton 3 on my RedHat box(source: http://www.hosting.com/support/linux/installing-python-3-on-centosredhat-5x-from-source/)

[root@isvx7 ~]# wget http://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.2/Python-3.2.tar.bz2 [root@isvx7 ~]# tar -xjf Python-3.2.tar.bz2 [root@isvx7 ~]# cd Python-3.2 [root@isvx7 Python-3.2]# ./configure --prefix=/opt/python3 [root@isvx7 Python-3.2]# make [root@isvx7 Python-3.2]# sudo make install [root@isvx7 Python-3.2]# /opt/python3/bin/python3 -V Python 3.2

Update the path to python3 in the scripts as shown below.

[root@isvx3 mypython]# cat hello.py #!/opt/python3/bin/python3 print ('Hello World!')

Unlike most programming and scripting languages, python relies on indentation as oposed to curly brackets
So to avoid errors like “inconsistent use of tabs and spaces in indentation”, it would be best
to setup autoindentation properly.

Below is a sample to setup vim autoindentation(source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/65076/how-to-setup-vim-autoindentation-properly-for-editing-python-files-py):

$ cat ~/.vimrc syntax on set showmatch set ts=4 set sts=4 set sw=4 set autoindent set smartindent set smarttab set expandtab set number

or

$ cat ~/.vimrc " configure expanding of tabs for various file types au BufRead,BufNewFile *.py set expandtab au BufRead,BufNewFile *.c set noexpandtab au BufRead,BufNewFile *.h set noexpandtab au BufRead,BufNewFile Makefile* set noexpandtab " -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- " configure editor with tabs and nice stuff... " -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- set expandtab           " enter spaces when tab is pressed set textwidth=120       " break lines when line length increases set tabstop=4           " use 4 spaces to represent tab set softtabstop=4 set shiftwidth=4        " number of spaces to use for auto indent set autoindent          " copy indent from current line when starting a new line " make backspaces more powerfull set backspace=indent,eol,start set ruler                           " show line and column number syntax on               " syntax highlighting set showcmd             " show (partial) command in status line

Even better than using vim would be to sue an IDE for python. This would particularly useful in
debugging the scripts, by setting break points, etc.

Wing IDE 101 is a good free Python IDE.
http://wingware.com/downloads/wingide-101